Sanikiluaq Community

Map of Sanikiluaq.

Sanikiluaq is located on the Belcher Islands in southeastern Hudson Bay. Residents rely primarily on subsistence hunting for food, clothing, and other necessary supplies. Hunters draw on traditional climate knowledge to find animals and navigate around the islands. However, conditions in Hudson Bay have become less stable over the past few decades. Sea ice conditions are not as predictable, water currents no longer reliable, and even the quality and condition of the animals has deteriorated at times. To document these environmental changes, the Sanikiluaq Environmental Committee began conducting surveys and gathering observations.

The Sanikiluaq Sea Ice Project is one of the resulting projects, for which three hunters produce information and maps about changing conditions around the islands. This collaboration is representative of the types of communities and projects ELOKA expects to serve. They include international projects, projects with diverse data and data needs, and data with varying accessibility. These projects are similar in that they all involve working with Arctic communities and residents in order to collect local observations and knowledge (LTK or community-based monitoring). The projects differ in the regions and cultures they represent, the data with which they are working, and their interests, needs, and goals for their data.